The Brick Moon and Other Stories by Edward Everett Hale
page 50 of 358 (13%)
page 50 of 358 (13%)
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at once in larger sleighs. We drove all night, changed
horses at Prospect, and kept on all the next day. At No. 7 we had to wait over night. We started early in the morning, and came down the Spoonwood Hill at four in the afternoon, in full sight of our little village. It was quiet as the grave! Not a smoke, not a man, not an adze-blow, nor the tick of a trowel. Only the gigantic fly-wheels were whirling as I saw them last. There was the lower Coliseum-like centring, somewhat as I first saw it. But where was the Brick Dome of the MOON? "Good Heavens! has it fallen on them all?" cried I. Haliburton lashed the beast till he fairly ran down that steep hill. We turned a little point, and came out in front of the centring. There was no MOON there! An empty amphitheatre, with not a brick nor a splinter within! We were speechless. We left the cutter. We ran up the stairways to the terrace. We ran by the familiar paths into the centring. We came out upon the ways, which we had never seen before. These told the story too well! The ground and crushed surface of the timbers, scorched by the rapidity with which the MOON had slid down, told that they had done the duty for which they |
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